Staying Beautiful: Treating Kids with Cleft Lip and Palate

04/30/2014

Pictured: Sophia Goodrich before and after

People didn’t mean to be unkind. But they couldn’t help but gasp when they first saw
little Sophia Goodrich. She was born with cleft lip, nose and palate, a condition
in which the lip, nose and roof of the mouth don’t form properly during fetal development.
The infant had wide gaps in that area of her face. “I knew something was wrong when
I saw the sonogram, even before I noticed if she was a boy or a girl,” recalls mom
Alycia Goodrich.

Children are fragile. If they look and sound different from other kids, it affects
their psychosocial development, sense of identity and self-esteem. Our goal is to
help them look, speak and function more normally.”

The baby’s pediatrician advised the Goodriches to take Sophia to St. Louis Cleft-Craniofacial
Center at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center. The center is staffed by
experts from SLUCare, the physicians of Saint Louis University. “We fix the things
that make us human,” says director Dr. Alexander Lin, assistant professor, division
of plastic surgery, at Saint Louis University and section chief of pediatric plastic
surgery at Cardinal Glennon. “Children are fragile. If they look and sound different
from other kids, it affects their psychosocial development, sense of identity and
self-esteem. Our goal is to help them look, speak and function more normally.”

About one in every 600 babies is born with a cleft lip and/or palate, making it the
most common congenital birth defect. The condition can cause severe facial deformities,
feeding problems, speech defects, misaligned teeth, poor growth and hearing problems.
A cleft lip can range in severity from a small gap to a complete split that extends
to the base of the nose; a cleft palate can affect one or both sides of the mouth,
including gums and jaws.

Lin performs multiple cleft surgeries per week. “Repairing a severe cleft can involve
reshaping the bones of the skull, face and jaw, as well as the cartilage and soft
tissues of the face, ears, lips, palate and tongue,” he explains. The center’s team
approach includes specialists in physical and occupational therapy, speech pathology,
orthodontics, audiology and other fields, for comprehensive care of all the issues
that can arise from cleft lip and/or palate. “All of us work together, making sure
your child receives the best care.”

Now the whole world can see how beautiful she is. She’ll face the future with confidence,
thanks to her wonderful SLUCare physicians.”

Treatment is customized to meet specific needs. Sophia, for example, underwent three
surgeries during her first year. “The first reduced the gap in her lip and nose, the
second reconstructed those areas, and the third repaired her palate so her speech
could develop normally,” Lin says. Surgeries are carefully scheduled to give realigned
tissues time to grow. “In the future she’ll probably need orthodontics and bone grafts
to her upper jaw and gums, like most kids with clefts,” he adds.

Today, aside from twice-weekly speech therapy sessions to treat a slight defect, you’d
never know that Sophia has been through so much. “She’s a feisty, adorable 3-year-old,”
her mother says. “Now the whole world can see how beautiful she is. She’ll face the
future with confidence, thanks to her wonderful SLUCare physicians."